#GivingTuesday

The Mission of the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art is to provide an opportunity to engage, to learn, and to be inspired through Steffen’s life, art, and legacy.

The Steffen Thomas Museum of Art is participating in Giving Tuesday this year with the goal of raising $12,000 to benefit the exhibitions program. Exhibitions are foundational to the museum's work, and all educational programs, workshops, and events benefit from their content. 

Without a robust exhibitions program, it would be challenging to arrange for events like the "Crossing Color Lines, Past and Present" panel discussion. As part of the "Black Heritage and the Brotherhood of Man" exhibition, the panel brought together artists, collectors, and STMA's own curator to discuss issues around racial identity, the arts, and how times have changed.

This panel discussion alone brought together over 60 people from the community together and showed just how important and impactful these events are. 

One of these programs is A Day at STMA, which welcomes over 700 students in grades K-12 into the museum each year. In this program, the class begins with a museum tour led by our well-trained docents, have a group discussion about the art, and then finish with an art project they can take home. When students tour the special exhibition, they engage with the themes, have important conversations, and learn something about what it is like to be a working artist.

During the 2020-2021 school year, students will be unable to visit in person. As an alternative, STMA is providing Distance Learning kits to partner schools. 

These kits provide all the necessary materials and instructions that a teacher needs to conduct a lesson or give to students as an at-home experience. Kits are provided at little to no cost to the schools, and are mainly funded through donations and sponsorships.

We have calculated that the total cost (materials and labor) for one Distance Learning kit is $20.  At a time when school budgets and art programs are being slashed, let's make sure that our children have the chance to learn and grow with art. 

College Connections is an educational program that benefits from special exhibitions in a variety of ways. The partnerships in this program have resulted in art exhibitions, published writing, major archival projects, and more. From research and analysis on a particular work or guest artist to hands-on projects in the gallery and archives, students in College Connections get a dynamic, career-expanding experience when special exhibitions are involved.

Let's unite and support meaningful events and programs like these! 

Join us on Giving Tuesday, December 1st and give to the Steffen Thomas Museum of Art.